Whenever convenient, the PPP/C never fails to invoke the imagery of the PNC’s flag fluttering over the High Court during the Burnham years.
It was, of course, a potent symbol of how the PNC had set about commandeering all aspects of the state and other branches of government. Whether or not judgments were influenced by the party’s views, the mere presence of that flag transformed the courts into a plaything for the ruling party and government. There could be no confidence in the independence of the courts and the presence of the flag created the well-held view that the judiciary had cowered before Burnhamism. The Sophia Declaration of 1974 made it clear that the state and party were inextricably entwined and interchangeable.
It is meet for this abomination to be recalled and remembered as a means of preventing its recurrence, except that in the case of the PPP/C it has an increasingly hollow ring. It is clear that particularly in the last two or three years a different kind of paramountcy has emerged in Georgetown. It is not one operated out of Freedom House but one that radiates from the Office of the President and is marshalled by President Jagdeo.
There is no Sophia Declaration per se. There is however an unwritten, nodding understanding among those engaged in this practice. More galling is the fact that the practice of this form of paramountcy is pitched at improving the fortunes of a select few, some not even in government, and preserving these fortunes and favours via the continuation of the party in power.
The last few months have borne witness to the vulgar motivations of the Office of the President and the unilateralism on expenditures to fulfil these. And so it was that after deep flooding in the Rupununi, the administration made the decision to provide flood relief to hard-hit residents. No one would begrudge deserving flood victims a helping hand so that they could get back on their feet. However, recent events make it clear that the elections timetable had everything to do with the scheduling of the payments.
So as Mr Clairmont Lye pointed out in a recent letter to this newspaper, some households swamped by distress in the June rains this year were only provided relief in November and quite extraordinarily at the PPP/C’s big campaign launch in Lethem. No matter how it is twisted and turned, on the day of the PPP/C’s campaign rally, the intended recipients of the aid just happened to be in the environs and just happened to find themselves on the upper floor of the PPP’s office where the state’s money was then handed out to them. An unmistakable link between their political support and the state’s largesse was created. This blurring of the line between the party and the state is quintessentially what paramountcy in our local context is. Sundry other questions prevail about this distribution of aid: the expunging of names of the deserving from the list and the adding of others who should not qualify.
Mr Lye’s diligent work also alighted on the presence of two polling agents on a Ministry of Health-chartered plane from Lethem to Gunn’s Strip. Whose polling agents could these possibly be? Regardless of whose agents they were this issue is a mere reminder of OP’s paramount disposition. The PPP/C’s meetings in key areas throughout the country have seen the use of vehicles that should be employed solely for state entities.
That is the least of the transgressions. Interior communities in particular have been favoured with regular visits by government officials bearing blandishments and the appeal for votes. A torrent of events has been conjured up in the waning days of the administration so that government officials can sally forth with others to lobby for the PPP. Frequently in the mix is the PPP/C presidential candidate, Mr Donald Ramotar who has been granted the sinecure of advisor to the president to afford him an opportunity to go around the country. Much of the expenditure related to his activities should truly be drawn from the PPP/C rather than from taxpayers.
There are innumerable other ways in which the paramountcy of the Office of the President has been flaunted. The disclosure in Saturday’s newspaper that a Chinese firm has been assigned a contract for a new terminal at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri and the expansion of the runway exemplifies the presidency’s total disregard of the populace. There can be no doubt that this deal which was first revealed to the Guyanese public via a Jamaican newspaper could only have been sealed if the President was fully involved. Yet there was no sign of public tendering, no explanation of why single-sourcing might have been absolutely essential – except perhaps there were only a few more days for President Jagdeo to make this deal – no publicly known due diligence on the contractor, no environmental impact assessment as required by the laws of this country and most shocking, no engagement with the public. The signing of this contract behind the back of the nation and its saddling of the country with another huge loan is scandalous and this must certainly be reviewed by any incoming government.
It was the same manner in which a deal had been struck with the Indian company Vaitarna for two forestry concessions and then revealed by the Indian press.
And what of the billions of dollars collected by the government from the Guyana Lottery Company games? President Jagdeo and a select few have exercised dominion over which projects these funds should be channelled to instead of ensuring their deposit in the Consolidated Fund and handling through the various mechanisms of Parliament. Control over funds like these has permitted the President to go all over the country and hand out money left, right and centre without any consideration of the role of Parliament in these matters.
Such minutiae have never troubled President Jagdeo but not even the bigger gambles. For example, his pledging of all of the state forests of this country in the fight against climate change. There was much to recommend in this initiative but for one big blunder: the public had not one inkling about what was done in their name. There were no prior consultations before the announcement was made at a Commonwealth Finance Ministers meeting in Georgetown in 2007. That wasn’t the PNC flag fluttering over the High Court. It was more like the Jagdeo standard wrapping swathes of the country’s forests.
His cavalier approach to the assenting of legislation and his mind-boggling extension of the life of the Ethnic Relations Commission despite this being unconstitutional are other examples of the manner in which the President has sought to exert himself.
As to the extravagant pension package he has secured on the backs of the Guyanese taxpayer it would be a revealing exercise if the origins of the bill were disclosed. Was it President Jagdeo himself who presented to the drafters the terms of this package? It would be difficult to envisage any other member of the government having the audacity to be so uncaring and profligate with the public purse. More paramountcy.
So on the campaign platform, the PPP/C needs to be a bit more circumspect about the manner in which they lacerate the opposition. Their own President has fashioned a form of paramountcy that is just as repugnant.
